Originally Posted by
bhatnasx
Question for the pros....
I'm Australia based & have about 8k BizExtra points in my account with about 4k of them expiring at the end of the year. I was looking at the BX9B award, which is saver biz between South Pacific & US. The only direct AA routes is SYD/AKL-LAX and there is *no* availability at all in 2018 on these routings on AA metal. So I'm very hesitant to cash out for this award - and this is the only award I'd really use.
Any suggestions on an award from Pacific (or even Asia) that's got good AA biz availability that I should consider cashing out on?
Since I believe BX9B requires AA metal, and AA has been extremely (I mean
extremely extremely!) stingy with releasing space on it's own metal, I would not redeem for that.
How often do you fly AA or Qantas? Perhaps an Admirals Club membership might be of use?
https://www.businessextra.com/awards/toc.htm?awardId=17
However, since you're not domestic to AA you'd likely have to use a lot 'partner lounges', so, check if the partner lounge access policies work for you:
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...p#southpacific
Or consider if you have no oneworld status, get yourself (or someone else) 'Ruby' by redeeming for AAdvantage Gold status:
https://www.businessextra.com/awards/toc.htm?awardId=14
My redemption patters would be different than you since I'm based in the US, but, I usually redeem on a mix of BXP1's (single segment North American upgrade) and 1-Day Admiral club passes.